From Taboo To Trending: Hollywood’s Complicated Relationship With Pregnancy

For decades, Hollywood treated pregnancy like a scandal. The mere suggestion that a woman might be with child was once considered too vulgar for screens both big and small. It’s almost hard to imagine now, in an age when baby bump reveals and postpartum selfies flood Instagram. But for much of the 20th century, pregnancy was something to be hidden; literally stitched into costumes, cropped out of frame, and scrubbed from scripts just as if it was another cursed word. 

The transformation of how Hollywood presents pregnancy is a story not just of art and filmmaking, but of femininity, public image, and our collective discomfort with the body when it stops being just for looking and starts being powerful. 

Why do pregnancies make some so uncomfortable? And how did Hollywood work their way up to where we are now?

Lucille Ball and the First Televised Pregnancy

In 1952, Lucille Ball made television history when her real-life pregnancy was written into I Love Lucy. But the road there wasn’t simple. Network executives were hesitant. The word "pregnant" itself was considered too explicit for television, so they settled on the more delicate phrase "expecting."

We’ll never know if our beloved Lucy had to negotiate her way before getting pregnant or if she simply did and put her foot down; but regardless, we do know that she found out she was pregnant at the same time as the whole country since a lab technician tipped off the newspapers before her doctor had the chance to give her a call. This was still a time when women would get fired or were expected to quit their jobs the moment they found out they were pregnant. Her husband Desi was on her side and reportedly told the executives, “Don’t f** around with the Cuban” when negotiations over the pregnancy got tense. 

The mere suggestion that a woman might be with child was once considered too vulgar for screens both big and small.

Ball, ever the trailblazer, navigated the rigid moral codes of her time with grace and humor. When I Love Lucy aired Lucy Ricardo’s pregnancy (in the sweetest of ways!), it marked the first time an American television character had ever been openly depicted as pregnant. But even then, there were strict limitations: no mention of sex, no acknowledgment of how she got pregnant, and certainly no discussion of the physical toll of pregnancy. Her growing belly was carefully concealed behind furniture or props in nearly every scene. It was a sanitized version of motherhood—not meant to be relatable or to reflect reality, but rather another careful tiptoe around the truth, even in the midst of the 1950s baby boom.

Behind the scenes, however, Hollywood’s relationship with pregnancy was even murkier. Loretta Young, one of the silver screen's darlings of the 1930s, became pregnant by Clark Gable while filming The Call of the Wild. To avoid scandal, she disappeared from public view, gave birth in secret, and later staged an elaborate adoption story to "reclaim" her own biological daughter. It wasn’t until decades later that some of the truth came out. Young agreed to publicly admit that she was the biological mother of her “adopted” daughter and Clark Gable was the father after decades of rumors largely fueled by the timing and the resemblance of the child to both actors. 

Young knew her end was near, so she allowed for the confession to be in her authorized biography but she also asked for the book, Forever Young, to be published after her death. Around the same time, Loretta’s daughter-in-law publicly stated that Loretta had been a victim of date rape, a concept Loretta did not understand at the time it occurred, but later came to recognize. Her story speaks volumes about the shame and silence surrounding motherhood and unplanned pregnancies in Hollywood at the time and the lengths actresses had to go to to protect their careers.

However, Loretta’s story is an exception. In reality, most Hollywood actresses that became pregnant during this time either had their careers come to an end or were forced into abortions.

The 1980s: Carefully Curated Pregnancies

The 1980s brought slight progress, but it was still a time of careful choreography. Pregnant actresses continued to hide behind props and strategically placed handbags. While TV writers began to write pregnancies into plot lines—think of Murphy Brown or Family Ties—these moments were handled delicately, often framed around comedy or sentimentality, and rarely delved into the grittier sides of pregnancy.

At this point, Hollywood was still more comfortable with the glowing image of motherhood than with its realities. Morning sickness? Rarely shown. Miscarriage? Almost never addressed. Postpartum depression? Not even part of the vocabulary. Motherhood was visually celebrated, but emotionally muted.

1991: The Demi Moore Vanity Fair Moment

Then came Demi Moore.

In August 1991, Vanity Fair released a cover that would become one of the most iconic images of the decade: Moore, seven months pregnant, naked, and staring confidently into the camera. Shot by Annie Leibovitz, the image was revolutionary. It dared to say that pregnancy wasn’t something to hide; instead it was something to display, to admire, to celebrate, and to honor.

The cover sparked controversy. Some found it beautiful and empowering; others called it indecent. But regardless of public opinion, it shifted the cultural landscape. Moore's photo wasn’t just about vanity or shock value. It offered a new narrative: the pregnant body as a site of power, beauty, and agency. For the first time ever, a major publication celebrated a woman not in spite of her pregnancy, but because of it.

This moment cracked open the door for Hollywood to rethink how it portrayed motherhood. It made space for actresses to be both glamorous and visibly pregnant. And more importantly, it made pregnancy aspirational; something to flaunt, not disguise.

The 2000s: Bumps Go Mainstream

By the early 2000s, the tide had turned. Pregnancy became a fixture of celebrity culture. Paparazzi staked out maternity clinics. Magazines speculated wildly about baby bumps. Actresses like Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jennifer Lopez made motherhood part of their personal brands.

Hollywood films also began to explore motherhood more earnestly. In Knocked Up (2007) and Juno (2007), pregnancy was central to the plot, though still often framed with humor. These stories began to show more nuance, acknowledging fear, ambivalence, and the complexities of unplanned pregnancies.

Even so, Hollywood still tended to romanticize the experience. Rarely did we see portrayals of miscarriage, infertility, or the psychological toll that pregnancy can bring. Birth scenes were dramatized but rarely realistic. The postpartum period remained largely off-limits.

Today: Honesty, But Not Without Cost

Today, it’s not just acceptable for actresses to be pregnant, it’s often celebrated. Stars like Blake Lively and Rihanna (a.k.a., the queen of pregnancy announcements) have turned red carpet maternity fashion into a cultural phenomenon. Instagram has given women a platform to share their pregnancies on their own terms, complete with curated aesthetics and branded baby showers.

We’ve also seen greater visibility around the less glossy aspects of pregnancy. Celebrities like Jessie James and Meghan Markle have spoken publicly about pregnancy loss. Actresses like Shay Mitchell and Halsey have opened up about postpartum struggles. 

But this newfound openness comes with its own pressures. In many ways, the expectation has shifted from silence to performance. Women are now expected to share, to document, to curate, to reveal, even the most intimate parts of pregnancy. How could we forget Kourtney Kardashian physically pulling her baby out on T.V. or Hannah Neelman (Ballerina Farm) walking out of her bathroom with her baby wrapped in her arms and with her placenta hanging out? 

But perhaps the most beloved for its honest approach to many aspects of pregnancy, is What to Expect When Expecting. One of the first to openly showcase how social groups are impacted by pregnancies. The competition, the comparison, the protective instinct, all of it in just one movie. 

And despite all our progress, Hollywood still struggles with complexity. Abortion, though more openly discussed, remains more of a political statement than a personal one. Miscarriage is often used as a plot device rather than a deeply felt loss. And the postpartum period—with all its physical, emotional, and spiritual upheaval—remains grossly underrepresented.

Where We Are Now

We’ve come a long way since Lucille Ball had to hide her bump behind a kitchen counter. Pregnancy is no longer a career-ending secret in Hollywood. In fact, it can enhance a brand, deepen a character, or endear an audience.

But visibility isn’t the same as understanding.

Pregnancy has finally made it to Hollywood, but its full story has yet to be told. And maybe that’s the next frontier: not just showing women pregnant, but showing them human. Honestly showcasing all the things that make pregnancy so special and how even the not-so-fun parts are still worthwhile. But just like Lucille Ball and Loretta Young, women need to advocate for themselves and their families when it comes to how the world will perceive their choices. 

A good non-Hollywood example of this is the researcher Dr. Catherine Pakaluk (PhD. Economics from Harvard University) who shared the uncomfortable conversation that followed after she disclosed to a woman on the bus that the baby in her arms wasn’t her first child, but her sixth. This moment served as proof that even amongst the privileged, women who choose to become pregnant under circumstances not favored by the majority are still met with a raised brow. 

Will this be the case forever? Could it be that no matter how much we discuss it, pregnancy will always be a trigger word in our culture? Perhaps it will, given the fact that pregnancies will always be a very personal and sensitive topic. But at least now, we can also celebrate it and accompany women wherever they are in their journey.